Excerpts
Lilacs
There was a photo from my childhood that I hated of me and the lilacs. I was standing in the backyard of our house in New Jersey, and my motherhad asked me to pull a lilac blossom closer to my face. I didn’t want to pose with the lilacs in my face. It felt artificial and …
Box of Stars
for Sara I hate when the gods leave us.Field of wind, field of wine: a headacheis a loneliness in which to lie down.So one enters sleep every night, a little softer,walks softly over graves. The brightnessin the sky neither the color of rust nor moth.Lucid because we do not yet understand.Though we imagine its …
Cold
It was so cold,the war had frozen over. I could see my breath in the classroom,fluffy like cotton yarn,and my teacher’s,and my high school colleagues’. At home, I’d place my handsover the reading lampto turn them from blueto red. Mom bought fabrics, lining, batting, and snapsand made my brother and me ski costumesto wear to …
Lip Liner to Hillary
I’m worried sick you’ll ditch me. Rumor isSarah Palin’s lips always look plumpbecause her liner’s tattooed, counterfeit.She wakes up with zigzag hair, bad breath, a grump,and fuchsia-outlined lips ready for prom.I hear her trick saved time at campaign stops;unlike your fifteen-minute drill—lip balm,lip primer, me, lipstick, gloss, cotton swabsto even my line—she was done in …
Nowhere Place
Loosely tethered to my body, my psyche resists its physical boundaries. Reaches out, trying to escape from this breathing object, me, but it can only go so far. My fingers curl and uncurl, clench and unclench. Spasms of habit trigger points of pain in my wrist and the joints of my hands. Tighten my fists until …
Elegy in Which I Am Awake
I thought it would be another door opened in the body,opened on a street where there is music, anda little rain or snow falling, the sound of someone shoutingin the rain, and the new warmthof bare feet in streetlight, blue field at duskand you …
When I Am Told to “Buck Up” to “Fight the Good Fight” to “Pull Up My Boot Straps & Build Bridges” But I Am Not Ready But I Know Damn Well I Should Be Ready So I Try:
Whoever despises the clitoris despises the penisWhoever despises the penis despises the cuntWhoever despises the cunt despises the life of the child.– Muriel Rukeyser America, fuck you. Let me be specific: My mother’s white America, fuck you. & fuck me, too, because I didn’t makea warrior of myself & disruptmy mother’s comfort by reminding her …
The Last Woman on Earth
The Last Woman on Earth lives in Los Angeles. She’s single and in her thirties, five foot seven, 145 pounds, a Virgo. She is the world’s most famous celebrity. Her talk show has the largest viewership of any tv program, with higher ratings than the Super Bowl and reruns of old Miss Universe pageants. The Last Woman on Earth …
Animal Rhetoric
I. Thesis The week before Graham Bryant killed his girlfriend, he turned in a paper to my first-year composition course, Animals and Society, arguing that dogs should have the same rights as human beings. The first paragraph reads: It is agreed there are basic rights that everybody shares. This is supported by the U.S. Declaration of Independence (Wikipedia). For …